Melodic Fantasies
by TriplePirouette
Summary: A collection of drabbles written to music on various topics, aka a "music meme". See the first chapter for complete details. Mostly Bruce Wayne/Batman focused, all het pairings.
1. Headings, Rules, and Tattoo of the Sun

Title: Melodic Fantasies

By: Triple Pirouette

Category: General and Various

Rating: PG-13/T

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are not mine, they belong to their respective creators.

Distribution: and my site. Anywhere else please ask first.

Summary: A collection of drabbles written to music on various topics, aka a "music meme". See the first chapter for complete details.

Feedback PLEASE at: Or just hit the little button there. I'd like to know if there are any that stand out or you'd like to see as full length stories.

A/N: After reading _Antrozous_ by Dr. Fear-Toxin I was inspired to try my own hand at the "meme." The rules she supplied me with were the following:

**MUSIC MEME**

**1.** Pick a character, pairing, or fandom you like.

**2.** Turn on your music player and put it on random/shuffle.

**3.** Write a drabble related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble. You start when the song starts, and stop when it's over. No lingering afterwards!

Do ten of these, then post them.

I started by doing ten at a time for the general Batman/Dark Knight universe, and have since just done a few whenever I have a few minutes. **I've modified the "rules" a bit, here are my changes:**

-It doesn't have to be ten songs :)

-I use my iPod or computer's iTunes shuffle. If I'm using my iPod I reshuffle after every song- it makes me feel less like I can skip the songs.

-I only skip/don't write to songs if they've been cut so that they're shorter than the song would normally be (that just doesn't seem fair) or if I've already used them.

-I allow myself to finish the sentence I'm writing, even if the song has ended.

-Before posting I allow basic editing for grammar, spelling, and typos. No major edits or changes to wording or sentence structure takes place.

You'll also notice that some are longer and some are shorter. I type much faster than I can write with pen and paper, so anything written by hand is simply shorter. Also, some ideas take longer to form…

I'm posting each "song" as it's own chapter because I feel that each is it's own, separate idea and thus should be read/viewed that way.

I've randomly decided that this "set" of memes is complete. Any future ones will be posted in a separate story set as the sequel.

Again- I'd love any feedback you have, and if you'd like to see any of these expanded, let me know. Onto the first…

* * *

**Tattoo of the Sun- Third Eye Blind (4:16)**

**Written on 12/1/08 typed**

Bruce Wayne walked down the busy Gotham street and nearly smiled. Every day seemed full of hope now. She'd come into his life. She was young, though not too young, but it filled her with idealism and energy; ideas for the future that he thought himself far too cynical to believe before. But not now. The sun on his face felt warm.

That night he fell though the glass window of her bedroom. He'd never intended to tell her who he was. At least not now. But the wound on his side... it was far too bad to try to get home, to try to get to Alfred. She jumped awake, flailing to the back of her bed. He pulled off his mask and she gasped. She ran to him, watching the warm red run into the carpet below him.

He felt ashamed the next day as he walked through the business district. She'd taken care of him. Called Alfred, and couldn't look at him when he left. The warm sun beat down on him. She'd never lied to him. He lied to her.


	2. Irresistible

**Irresistible - Jessica Simpson (3:10)**

**Written 12/2/08 by hand**

She cringed, watching the man before her. Online he'd said his name was Jack Napier. Said he'd had an abusive father and was looking for a woman to cherish so he could leave that past behind. He moved closer, razor in hand, licked his lips and her breath caught. He hadn't sent her a photo because he said he'd been scarred as a child. Tears flowed as her heart pounded. "Let's see if we can put a smile on that face," he said, low and quiet as he approached her. Online, he'd seemed so irresistible.


	3. Plan B

**Plan B - Blue Harvest (2:47) **

**Written 12/1/08 by hand**

Weaving in and out of traffic was an art. The Tumbler could sustain a lot of damage, but the Hondas and Chevy's around him couldn't. They'd be carrying kids to soccer practice and babies home from the hospital. Batman weaved left, braked, and watched as he spun, barely missing a teenage boy on a bike. He hated car chases during the day, so many more people could get hurt. He leaned forward and hit the gas. He was going to catch this psychopath now. No way was he getting away.


	4. Bleeders

**Bleeders- The Wallflowers (3:41)**

**Written 12/1/08 by hand**

It had been easy for Bruce Wayne to hide and deceive his way through life up until now. There were certain perceptions, expectations that people had for him. He could brood through high school and now one expected any more from the boy who watched his parents die. They didn't. He did. He wasn't like the man he wanted everyone to think he was. He longed to show the world who he was. He felt ashamed. His best couldn't measure up to the ghost of his father, of the man he always hoped to be.


	5. Before He Cheats

**Before He Cheats - Carrie Underwood (3:28)**

**Written 12/1/08 by hand**

The women of Gotham couldn't wait to be the next one, dreaded being the last. Each had fantasies: maybe they'd bump into him on the street, at a party, end up as his secretary, or any of a million other scenarios that left them on the arm of Bruce Wayne. But he always moved on, there was a trail of women a mile long in his wake. Each had fantasies that they'd be the first to break that chain. Afterward, they had fantasies of the revenge they'd exact for their broken hearts.


	6. Break Myself

**Break Myself- Something Corporate (3:16)**

**Written 12/1/08 typed**

Batman watched from the Gotham rooftop. Some nights gave him highs, the gliding between buildings, helping people. Lately it left him cold, empty. He watched the people move below him, most with purpose but some in simple enjoyment of life. Cars became blurs and he couldn't help but sigh. He sailed away on the wind, looking for a new post to give him a new view, a new perspective. The rage and need for revenge had slowly gone away, though they hadn't gone completely they felt like they at least faded to a higher purpose. Now, there was no purpose, nothing left but senseless violence and innocent people. He didn't know how many more nights of this he could take. He landed on another roof. He wanted to tear off his mask and drop it, watch it fall and break, scatter into a million pieces. Like he was.


	7. These are the Days

**These are the Days - O-Town (4:24)**

**Written 12/1/08 typed **

Bruce Wayne watched Rachel Dawes walk out of the penthouse, unsure of where he truly stood. She said she'd wait. Now was not the time to give up, but he wanted nothing more some days than to hang up the cape. Without her support, her belief, he couldn't put on the mask every night. He didn't think he could keep it up without someone to share the wins with, to mourn the losses with. There was nothing left for him but the hopes of what could be, though. She'd moved on without him, and he hadn't truly known how much he cared for her until it was nearly too late.

He stepped to the window, and wondered if he was setting her up to be the hero's Achilles, the thing that would cause his downfall, that would ultimately give him away.

But did it matter? He'd lived so long in a dark place, in a place without love, without hope, where there was only anger, frustration, and revenge. Now, there was only uncertainty. No one knew him better than she did. If there was anyone he could confess his sins to, anyone that wasn't afraid to slap him into sense, it was her.


	8. You Can Fly

**You Can Fly - The Disney Chorus/Peter Pan Soundtrack (4:04)**

**Written 12/1/08 typed**

"Think of a wonderful thought!" Bruce said to his son as he lifted the five year old high into the air. Young Thomas had been enamored with flight since watching Pater Pan a few days ago. He asked anyone he could get to sit next to him about planes and birds and anything that flew, even the Batman.

Bruce spun his son around the room, the heir to the Wayne name and fortune, and wondered if he'd be the heir to the room under the southwest wing, as well. He didn't go out as much anymore, but he still donned the costume.

And even he had to think happy thoughts to fly. Thoughts of his small family, of other small families struggling to live in Gotham, got him through nights filled with rape, murder, and crime. Knowing that at the end of it he could fall into his wife's arms and wake up to the uncomplicated, unwavering smile of his son, made him fly. Knowing that he was protecting them made him put on the cape those nights.

"You can fly, Thomas!" He said as his son laughed. And hopefully Thomas wouldn't know for a long time that his Daddy could fly.


	9. Crash into Me hip hop mix

**Crash into me (hip hop mix) Dave Matthews Band (4:43)**

**Written 12/1/08 typed**

She watched for him in the night, watched over the rooftops and in the alleys. Watched the newspapers and the television reports. He'd saved her one night. She'd looked into his eyes and felt his arms around her as he flew her into the black night, swept her away from danger and into the safety of his arms. Falling into his chest had been like crashing into a warm brick wall, no give, but security somehow instead.

She stood on her balcony night after night. Some nights she saw search lights, some nights she saw nothing. Most nights she dreamed that she would have had the courage to rip his mask off. To kiss him. To proposition him. Anything.

He saved her, she could save him. Surely a man like that, a man who dressed up as a bat and risked his life for others, needed some kind of saving. She could save him. She would save him. She would hold him like he held her, as if he were the only thing in the world, as if she were the only important thing in that moment.

So she watched, and waited. For him.


	10. Get Busy

**Get Busy - Sean Paul (3:34)**

**Written 12/1/08 typed**

It was fast and hard, the way he liked it. No time to think, just react. He let his body move in the ways he taught it, pushed, leaned, turned, more muscle memory than anything, more reaction than action.

Five on one wasn't exactly a fair fight, at least not for the other five men when they were fighting the Batman. It was almost as if he were moving to a beat, finding a flow and following it. Adrenalin rushing, dodging this, blocking that… a dance if he thought about it. But he didn't. It was time to get busy, to get down to business.

They didn't get many punches in, but they got enough to make him angry. They caught him off guard enough times to make the fight last longer than it should have, but in the end he bested them, left them for the authorities, then moved on.

This time he fought two men intent on stealing a car. It really wasn't a fair fight. He saw the first twinges of sunlight as he tied the men to a street light.


	11. Goodbye to You

**Written 12/2/08 typed**

**Goodbye to You- Michele Branch (4:11)**

Rachel didn't want to write the letter. Of all the things in her life, she had always thought that her friendship, her relationship with Bruce Wayne, would be the one to last. She'd been so confused when she first realized it, when he said those words before disappearing off of the roof. Bruce Wayne was Batman.

It had been too chaotic then to really separate everything out to think about it. She was drawn to him then, was still drawn to him. But he blinded her when she was in his presence. She couldn't think straight. She placed her past hopes and future hopes in his hands, and he held the future of the city. How could she not look at him with stars in her eyes?

She wanted him. But she wanted him unconditionally. There could never be an "unconditionally" with him now. There were far too many conditions. And now she had Harvey. She had tried. She'd even told him... even said.... but she knew what she had to do now. She had to tell him that it was over. And she couldn't do it to his face, she would fall apart. He would always hold that power over her.

She put pen to paper.


	12. Love Me Do

**Written 12/2/08 typed**

**Love Me Do- The Beatles (2:20)**

It was a rare day when Alfred had the mansion all to himself, but it did happen. Though his job was to be at the beckon call of his younger charge, the man was, after all a person. He had likes, and dislikes, and had grown comfortable in the huge mansion after so many years. He smiled as he moved through the hall in jeans, a polo, and sneakers, his iPod in his ears, blaring Beatles music. It put an extra spring in his step as he moved through the large, usually cold and quiet house. It gave it personality. With Bruce gone, the mansion needed it.

Alfred crossed his feet and turned around on the marble, a smile on his face.


	13. Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now

**Written 12/2/08 typed**

**Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now- Jefferson Starship (4:35)**

Nothing about tonight made sense to young Bruce Wayne. Why would people go through all of the trouble? The girls spent thousands of dollars on silly prom dresses that they'd probably never wear again in their lives, he and his friends were forced to dress up in tuxes, all for the sake of tradition? Alfred wouldn't let him not go to his senior prom, though, so here he was.

The teens that weren't making out in corners looked painfully awkward. Not all the kids at fantastically expensive prep schools were cool, he mused. He didn't even have a date. Imagine that. Pop music blared from the speakers, the band on the stage not one that he knew, nor did he care to. It was a slow dance, and he sidled over to a corner, hands in his pockets. He would have asked Rachel to come. But she was already at a different prom with a boy from her own school. She probably would have liked all of this sparkly crap. He didn't.

Alfred had insisted, though. Nancy, a brunette from his history class, eyed him shyly. He turned, headed out of the expensive hotel's ballroom, and took the stairs to the roof. Anything was better than that drivel.


	14. Wicked Game

**Written 12/2/08 typed**

**Wicked Game- Chris Isaak (4:43)**

He shouldn't be at her door. Not at three am, not in the condition he was in. Not broken, battered, bleeding still. He'd tried to stay away. He knocked again. His mind was racing, his heart pounding. Anyone but her, his mind told him, anywhere but here.

But here he was. She opened the door herself, he should have found it weird, but he didn't. She wouldn't have servants. She was independent. She was lovely. She was perfect. He was not.

He'd woken her- it was obvious by the way she clutched her robe and the look in her half-lidded eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but he surged forward, trapping her lips with his. He'd pulled on the first pair of pants and shirt he could find after exiting the Bat Cave. It had been such a long night, and looking at his empty house, his empty mansion, made him long for the future she seemed to open up to him, even if it was false. He pushed her inside, but she didn't resist, she fell into him, kissing back with fervor as he closed the door and pushed her up against it.

The feel of her arms around him was home.


	15. A Little Less Conversation JXL remix

**Written 12/2/08 typed**

**A Little Less Conversation- Elvis vs JXL mix (6:22)**

Bruce tightened the fabric around his knuckles and cracked his neck left, then right. He bounced on the balls of his feet. The room before him held three punching bags, all hanging dead silently in the air. He smiled at them, bent his knees, and threw a flying side kick at the one dead center.

The trick was watching the reaction, he mused as he swung at the one to the right of him with a sweeping arm. He turned, swept under the pendulum swing of the one in the center, and lunged at the one on the left. It was when they swung back, attacking him, that their movements got unpredictable. So he moved, sidled, turned within the triangle of leather, fists hitting the weighted bags, legs pounding into them as the adrenaline rose.

His breath came quicker, he ducked left and kicked out a leg to the right, using the momentum of the bag he hit to swing it into the two next to, pushing them into a frenzy of swinging, the clanging of their chains a cacophony of sound in his ears as he smiled amid the pummeling leather.

A kick on his right leg, a flick of his right arm, and a well placed shoulder block stopped the bags dead, he dropped to the floor and rolled away as the bags fell from the ceiling, collapsing to the floor in a pile of leather.

Alfred knocked on the door, smiling and holding out a tray with a glass of water on it. "Good work out, sir?" he asked.

"Exceptional," Bruce answered, smiling as he took the glass.


	16. If I Had 1,000,000

**Written 12/2/08 typed**

**If I Had $1000000 - Barenaked Ladies (5:00)**

Money bought a lot of things, Bruce Wayne mused as he walked through the lobby of a hotel. He'd been attending a party there, and was always amazed, even as a young boy, at the spectacle that people could create just to prove something about themselves. It had been so contrary and repugnant to his sensibility to try to do things like this, to throw large and ridiculous and unnecessary parties, but he did anyway. He did it to make himself look like one of them; like one of the socialites who really cared about what these things symbolized or meant or what kind of caviar they served. Well, who the hell came up with the idea that fish eggs were really something we should eat anyway?

He strolled to the side of the lobby, looking out a window onto the gardens. What he wouldn't do if he didn't have to pretend. What a waste.


	17. Until the End of Time

**Written 12/2/08 typed**

**Until the End of Time- Justin Timberlake (5:22)**

Bruce Wayne stared at the cowl in his hands, put it gently back in it's place, and closed the doors to the closet that held his Bat Suit. If he had his way, he wouldn't be opening this closet for a long time, maybe ever again. He stepped away, a small sadness in his heart, but a burning in the bottom of his stomach with anticipation. He stepped into the elevator, smiled, and hit the button.

He was giving it up. He needed a break, at least, and he'd found something more important to him than hollow causes of hope and idealism. He'd found her. He'd found a woman who seemed to make his life brighter, who was damaged in her own way and could benefit as much from him as he could benefit from her.

He slid through the bookcase and out into the hall of the mansion, up the stairs quietly and into their bedroom. He wouldn't be going out again, not if he had a choice. He shed his clothes and slid into the bed, her warm body turning into his even as she slept. He held her close. Maybe he was being idealistic, but it felt like if she were all he had for the rest of his life, it would be enough.


	18. Runaway

**Written 12/28/08 by hand**

**Runaway – Bon Jovi (3:53)**

He'd seen her on the street three nights in a row now, watched from the shadows as she contemplated the Narrow's street corners with innocent eyes. Batman didn't save, didn't proselytize. At least, he hadn't before. It was the third night that he'd followed her through the alleys and dark streets, watching her posture slump the closer she got to her home. He heard the yells from inside, but couldn't bring himself to interfere. Yelling was wrong- but not criminal. The fourth night he stood behind her in the dark. "Don't," he whispered. She turned her head, but by the time she adjusted her eyes to the dark, no one was there.


	19. Give Peace a Chance

**Written 12/28/08 by hand**

**Give Peace a Chance- John Lennon (4:54)**

There were protests after that day- after Harvey's funeral. There were sit-ins and petitions and marches meant to help. It wasn't quite easy to say if they did or didn't, but they brought the middle, upper and lower class together in a way that nothing had before. Harvey's death was eventually pinned on the Joker when Gordon didn't have the heart to blame the man who'd saved his son. There were movements to stop crime, help the police force, secure the schools and hospitals, even to make Harvey Dent a memorial in Gotham Park. Bruce Wayne watched it all quietly, his inner turmoil calming with each effort by the formerly downtrodden citizens to make their world a better place.


	20. Business

**Written 12/28/08 by hand**

**Business- Eminem (4:13)**

It was a switch in him now that was never completely off, but flipping it on fully was second nature. It used to be the light in the sky that changed the beat of his heart, the timber of his voice. These days it was the vibration of the dedicated cell phone he perpetually kept in his back pocket. He moved swiftly, surely, and confidently as soon as he saw the text of each of Gordon's messages. The mental change and personality came long before the costume. Each breath, each punch, each second was designed to be the simplest and most effective. The good news was that he'd always made it home in the morning.


	21. Rock Star Jason Nevins Remix

**Written by hand date unknown**

**Rock Star (Jason Nevins Remix) – N*E*R*D (3:50)**

No matter what his better instincts told him to feel, there was a certain energy… even freedom in being there richest and most powerful man in the room. It was a different kind of rush for him to drive his Bugatti at 120 down the deserted streets of Gotham, a different kind of powerful feeling to have all eyes on him out of the Bat Suit. No matter his more secret nocturnal activities, walking into a room with a gaggle of beautiful women, becoming a spectacle that forces everyone- everyone- to stop, had some power to it. Bruce Wayne smiled.


	22. These Boots are Made for Walking

**Written by hand date unknown**

**These Boots are Made for Walking- Nancy Sinatra (2:40)**

Bruce Wayne did not consider himself a vain man. Seven years hiding in the dregs of society kept him more humble than most of his socially elite counterparts. Yet, those nights when he wasn't in a rush he relished the ceremony of donning the Bat Suit. Sure, after a while it was heavy, hot, and unbearable, but those initial moments- in those moments he felt like a god donning armor. It filled him with hope and possibilities.


End file.
